Iceland is rolling out plastic-free packaging on 18 products – including baked goods - in its Christmas range.

The retailer claimed it will be the only major supermarket to offer customers the choice of plastic-free or reduced-plastic packaging for Christmas dinner this year. The new plastic-free range includes Luxury Beef Wellington, Stuffing Balls and Luxury Black Forest Layered Pavlova.

Iceland’s reduced-plastic products feature 97% less plastic packaging than in previous years, said the business, reinforcing the supermarket’s pledge to eliminate plastic packaging from its own-label products by the end of 2023.

The retailer also aims to remove all black plastic packaging from its own-label products by January 2020.

“We’ve been working hard all year to develop alternative packaging solutions and I’m proud to be offering Iceland customers the choice of plastic-free Christmas products,” said Richard Walker, managing director at Iceland.

The supermarket is also offering consumers eight products with significantly reduced plastic packaging.

“We know there is a significant appetite for reduced plastic packaging and that plastic consumption increases significantly at Christmas, so we were keen to take on the challenge and demonstrate to the industry and our consumers that it’s possible to have a sustainable Christmas,” added Walker.

Since Iceland made its pledge at the beginning of last year, it has removed more than 2,100 tonnes of plastic from its own-label packaging.

The plastic-free range will be available online and in-store.